This invention relates to hand held vacuum devices for picking up and holding debris.
Heretofore, hand held vacuums for picking up and holding debris such dust, lint and dirt have been made small and light so that a user can easily use them with one hand and reach and clean out small places. In the past such hand held vacuums have included a rotary air pump driven by an electric motor and an electric cord from the motor is plugged into an available AC power line. With the availability of small, relatively light high powered electric motors, such hand held vacuums can be made rather powerful and may be driven by a one third or one half horsepower motor and still not be too heavy to be used readily with one hand. There are several problems that arise from the use of such hand held vacuums. For one the centrifugal pump is usually in the direct flow path of the debris that is drawn into the device before it reaches an attached catch bag and pieces of hard debris like pieces of metal can impact on the pump and damage it. Also, the electric motor that drives the pump can generate sparks and so the vacuum cannot be used freely in an environment of combustible or explosive fumes. These limitations of prior hand held vacuums are avoided by a vacuum device incorporating features of the present invention.